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Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo
Let me help unravel all the tin hat Reagan conspiracies here.
The Iranians were not sure who would win. If they gave up the hostages before the election, and Carter won, they had no bargaining chips and had lost leverage for no reason. If they didn't give up the hostages, and Carter won, then they still had a tool to use. If Reagan won, he had been making it clear that the hostages would be home, or ELSE. So the Iranians did the smart, sensible thing. They waited to see what happened.
Reagan won, they realized he wasn't bluffing, and said "ok here ya go, we are letting them go." Its just plain ole common sense. Something many seem to lose when they talk politics.
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Yeah, that's the story. I vaguely remember the October Surprise theories from back in the day, but they just seem to be your typical evil Republican conspiracy theories.
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That's the way I saw it too. And reading numerous books, most reflected the same attitude. The Iranians were really paranois about the US and CIA, a big part of what led to taking the students hostage. They were seriously worried about Reagan taking office.
Now, that's my kind of president 
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Indeed.
Btw, Skybird, I wasn't trying to be glib about not finding links to it during a quick search. I was genuinely looking for references to what you were talking about as to educate myself further on the subject.
Oh, and isn't it interesting the way some threads turn here on Subsim?